LING 355 Lecture Notes - Lecture 31: Nicaraguan Sign Language, American Sign Language, Creole Language
Document Summary
There are many sign languages; not just one shared by all deaf people. Sign languages share most of the characteristics of spoken languages, except for modality. They have a lexicon, morphology, syntax, semantics and even phonology. Phonology is when you break up a sign into smaller component parts just like you would break up a word into parts. Children exposed to sign language from birth go through the same developmental milestones as children acquiring spoken language. There are many different sign languages in the world and they are not mutually intelligible. Many studies have been made of asl (american sign language). This is an interesting case of the sign language developing from the children without any input. Education of deaf children in nicaragua started after the 1979 revolution, in two schools in managua. Children started at school with no previous exposure to sign language.
